Activists Lose Last Legal Battle To Protect Rare Miami Forest From Walmart Development

In 2007, researchers discovered the rare tiger beetle living in the pineland now slated for a Walmart-anchored development.

DONNA E. NATALE PLANAS
/ MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Activists fighting to preserve a slice of one of the world’s rarest forests lost what was likely the last legal battle to stop the imperiled ecosystem from turning into a Walmart-anchored development.

One of the last remnants in Miami-Dade of pine rockland, a forest that is home to the endangered Miami tiger beetle and more than 20 protected species of animals and plants found no place else, is being reduced to two small preserves within Coral Reef Commons, a mixed-use project spread across about 140 acres next to ZooMiami. A 2017 lawsuit challenging the project’s zoning process was struck down last week, clearing the way for the big-box store to replace plants like the deltoid spurge, a tiny endangered herb that is only found at that spot.

The legal hearing was too late to save much of the forest anyway. Bulldozers have already cleared much of the ground and the concrete foundation of a strip mall can be seen from Coral Reef Drive, near the entrance of the site. One morning this week, workers were laying the roof on dozens of three-story buildings that seem near completion.

The new executive director of the environmental group Friends of the Everglades is not that impressed with Gov. Ron DeSantis' environmental record thus far.

Earlier this year, the governor granted $625 million to Everglades restoration and water quality projects as part of a proposed $91.3 billion state budget plan. But according to Alex Gillen, the new director, that's not enough.

"I don't think you should be rewarded for doing kind of what you're supposed to do," he said on Sundial.

Gillen spoke on the show about environmental concerns across the state.

Two years ago, it looked as if Hurricane Irma would make a direct hit to South Florida. Hundreds of thousands of people were ordered to leave their homes. Many did and found emergency shelters with no room and gridlocked traffic.